Amazon Customer Reviews of Bloodlines
Bloodlines by Neville Frankel is a wonderfully written and powerful story that embraced me emotionally and intellectually. It illuminates the history of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa through four generations of an extended family thereby making it both universal and personal. The structure of the story allows the reader to view each of the main characters through the eyes of the others. In doing so, the story unfolds in ever deepening layers revealing the consequences of life choices and the reality of the lack of simplistic answers.
Ultimately this book is about love. How romantic love as well as love of country and family in all its complexities shapes history and how history shapes love. It is a compelling and fascinating book full of the physical beauty of South Africa. Neville Frankel comes home with his heart wide open.
-Leslie E, Amazon Customer Review
“Bloodlines” is a great book! What makes this a great book for me? Searching the Internet to find what others consider some of the criteria, I found an explanation that resonated with me by sci-fi author Angie Lofthouse.
“Great books have great characters. Characters we can love. Characters we can hate. Characters we can root for. Characters we want to hang out with. Characters we want to be. I believe great characters are the most important part of a great book.”
You will care deeply about the characters in “Bloodlines”. For me, they were `flesh `n blood’ people.
“Great books also have great plots. Plots that matter. Plots that make our hearts pound and linger with us long after we put the book down. Great plots stem from great characters.”
You will have a hard time putting “Bloodlines” aside until you’re finished. Then, you will want to read it again and again. I do.
“Great books also have a strong sense of setting. We feel like we are there, whether it’s New York City, a small country farm, or a faraway fantasy kingdom. We can see it, smell it, feel it, live in it. It’s so much more than just the geography. It’s the culture, the history and everything else culminating in a place so real we can visit it again and again in our mind.”
You will see, smell, feel and live in South Africa. You will deepen your understanding of the struggles against apartheid and develop an appreciation and respect for the Zulu culture.
“Great books have real emotion. They make us feel something. Joy, pain, love, hate, envy, peace. Great books bring out the strongest emotions inside us. They show us what it is to be human.”
You will feel deeply from the indignities suffered to passionate desire and the transformative power of forgiveness.
Through visual and visceral writing, Neville Frankel has given us a great book because he is a great writer!”
-Carol Remz (Seattle, WA), Amazon Customer Review
Bloodlines is exactly the kind of novel book groups crave – large scope, fascinating characters, complex relationships, and beautifully written prose. Frankel writes from the heart and so makes a real connection with readers. The book sparked so many good discussions among our book club about the nature of family and finding oneself and the horrifying truths about apartheid. I would read it again and again.
-SB Kaye, Amazon Customer Review
An evocative page-turner, Bloodlines is a compelling story that moves between powerful scenes in Apartheid South Africa , and Boston. I devoured this book whose scope majestically encompasses international relations while focusing intently on individuals in one family. Written as a reminiscence, Frankel’s intensely evocative prose imbues the tale with a dreamlike quality which is further enhanced by his deft play with time and location. I came to deeply care about the characters and missed them when I finished reading.
The richly depicted resistance movement to Apartheid is told from the perspective of a man’s search for his past which includes the mysterious story of his mother’s tragic death when he was seven. Themes of liberation, oppression, loss and reconciliation are masterfully woven into the texture of this novel as it explores the movement of a family between three countries. Frankel’s respectful depiction of the deep emotional lives of his characters allows the reader to experience the vividness of their interpersonal relationships as if one were there. For readers who enjoy John Banville or Ian McEwan, Bloodlines is a must read.
-David Sloan-Rossiter, Amazon Customer Review
The essence of a great novel is its ability fully to transcend time, to engage the reader with ageless truths and believable characters,and to develop a storyline that expresses the essential goodness of the human condition. Bloodlines, written by Neville Frankel, merits such distinction.
With clarity of vision and majesty of prose, Mr. Frankel introduces the reader to beautifully limned characters, majestic, albeit feral, landscapes, interesting history and an underlying, deadly protagonist, Apartheid South Africa. Bloodlines awakens the reader to a time gone by and sharpens its purpose as a novel by visual and almost tactile emotions, illustrating the author’s vibrant command of language and innate understanding of the land of his birth, South Africa.
One reads with utter fascination the lengthy struggles of all involved, the resilience and strength of personal conviction that remain steadfast despite near-insurmountable challenges, the singular respect given each character, and the resolute determination to end a national horror. In unison and without umbrage, the voices made triumphant by Mr.Frankel’s novel vitiate temporal judgment and penetrate the very soul of the reader. Such defines a masterpiece. Such is Bloodlines.
Author Neville Frankel’s training as a painter is fully realized in his novel, Bloodlines, in the vivid descriptions of this beautiful but tormented country. This inter-generational epic operates on so many levels – historic, romantic, political and familial. It truly is a page-turner. Frankel interweaves all kinds of facts and images as he traces one family through its multiple relationships and travels through time and continents.
-Ellen Greenfield, Amazon Customer Review
When a good writer weaves together public events with private experiences, the reader is able to effortlessly move into another era, another landscape, and share the emotions experienced by the major players in the story. That’s what Neville Frankel has done in Bloodlines – with a spare grace that evokes without overwhelming, and inspires without cajoling. He brings to life the indignities and injustices suffered by many at the hands of the apartheid government, and the quest of one Boston couple to understand how it has affected their lives which in the end brings forth their own truth and reconciliation.”
-Jill Greenberg, Amazon Customer Review
Bloodlines is exactly the kind of novel book groups crave – large scope, fascinating characters, complex relationships, and beautifully written prose. Frankel writes from the heart and so makes a real connection with readers. The book sparked so many good discussions among our book club about the nature of family and finding oneself and the horrifying truths about apartheid. I would read it again and again.”
-Carol Osterer, Amazon Customer Review
I loved reading this story of a family over several generations. I especially appreciated learning much about the often disturbing history of South Africa and imagining the physical beauty of this country which is so vividly described. Neville Frankel writes in such a fluid manner- I was rushing to get to the end but sad to have finished it.
-Gail Chapman Close (Sudbury, MA United States), Amazon Customer Review
I began it about week or ten days ago and found it to be one of those novels that I can’t put down and therefore regret to finish.I have read it through, and wish there were more. First it’s an unbeatable narrative. Second, it’s about believable people, and third it gives an illuminating exposure of a place and period in our time about which most of us are poorly informed, apartheid being for most Americans only a distant relative of the slavery/segregation years of our own country. It was a rich insight of yours to demonstrate with such specificity the interaction between a family and a fragmented society, -which latter existed in the first place out of the imperialism the strong have so often exerted over the weak. Among other reflections aroused in me came from your careful and sympathetic insights into the deep structure of Zulu society, which we Europeans have presented mostly as “primitive”and awaiting our erasure so we can inscribe our own. You have entertained us, informed us in the history of our time and enlisted our critical eye on much we mistakenly take for granted.
-Dr. Stan Leavy
An excellent novel! To say that the book was a page turner is an understatement. I devoured every word and chapter in two days. Frankel paints a vivid picture of South Africa during apartheid. The novel weaves romance, adventure and history together, making the read not only very enjoyable, but also educational. I highly recommend Bloodlines. It is a fantastic read.
-Leigh N., Amazon Customer Review